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Sunday, May 17, 2015

Review of Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien

What do
the following works have in common: M. John Harrison’s Viriconium Nights, Ursula Le Guin’s Tales from Earthsea, Ian McDonald’s Cyberabad Days, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Martians, Robert Silverberg’s Majipoor Chronicles, and George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen Nights? They are not only all
collections, they are also collections featuring stories set in an established
world, binding the larger pieces together like cement. (In the case of
Harrison’s Viriconium, we must make that plural: worlds).Poring over the wealth of material available
for the posthumous publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (1977), Tolkien’s son, Christopher, tabbed,
compared, analyzed, and made extensive notes of it all, and three years later
published Unfinished Tales
(1980).Like the aforementioned author’s
collections, it fills in holes, covers backstory, and all around creates a
broader, rounder view of a world, in this case the inimitable (though often
attempted) Middle Earth. Therefore, those looking for The Lord of the Rings 2: Sauron Strikes Back should be aware: Unfinished Tales is most similar to the
mythic stylings of The Silmarillion
and the informational appendices of The Lord of the Rings than the novel itself.

Unfinished Tales is for the scholar, the connoisseur, the nerd of Middle Earth.Frodo, Gandalf, Sam, Bilbo, Gimli, Aragorn—all get brief mention, but
are far, far from being the cornerstones of the collection.Unfinished
Tales can thus be broken into three essential parts: 1) the tales and
myths, legends and stories Tolkien had written in the background of the major
works that are confluent with Middle Earth history yet insular.For readers simply interested in reading more
from Tolkien’s imagination, they will satisfy. 2) bits of history, including
geographical descriptions, royal lineages, histories of friendships and
marriages, maps, etc.These are for the
reader who revels in worldbuilding.And
3) the foot notes.Covering a tremendous
range of side commentary, Tolkien includes his father’s scribblings in the
margin, alternate versions of the stories at hand, cross-indexing, analysis,
supposition, as well as explanations and descriptions how or why the
information is important to the larger scheme of Middle Earth.Though dad’s writings occupy the majority, the
foot notes occupy a significant portion of the book.(There are even a couple of occasions wherein
the foot notes are longer than the story itself.)These additional notes, analysis, and
commentary are for the reader with “Frodo
lives!” tattooed on their forehead.

The title,
as honest as it may be, is conservative; there are only a few stories which
live up to the name “Unfinished Tales”.Each complete to some degree, there are none that read: “For when Tuvarin raised his sword to smight
the dragon, the great beast rai—“. There are, however, a couple of tales
which end relatively abruptly.The first “Of Tuor and His Coming to
Gondolin”, for example, is a delightfully linear narrative rumbling along with
all the stylish accoutrements of Nordic and Greek myth, but ends without truly
achieving the goal it set out for itself.What does exist of the story satisfying in itself, there remains a small
sense of incompleteness.That the end is
just around the corner, however, easily allows the reader’s imagination to fill
in the holes.“Aldarion and Erendis: The
Mariner's Wife” ends a bit more abruptly, and is the biggest reason the collection’s
title is what it is.The remaining
selections that are fiction (not fictional non-fiction) have a much stronger
sense of completion, including the stand-out piece “The Tale of the Children of
Hurin”, which is full-on mythic tragedy rendered in flawless style.

Thus, if The Hobbit is the butter, The Lord of the Rings the bread, and The Silmarillion the bottle of rich, red
wine standing nearby, than Unfinished
Tales is the crumbs.Truly for the famished,
Christopher Tolkien has carefully pieced together the bits of lore, tales with
no place in the three books published prior, and other leftovers and put them
in one place: unnecessary for full enjoyment of Middle Earth, but available for
those interested in a little something to top off their hunger.

In the
end, Unfinished Tales is a
meticulously edited collection of tales in the Middle Earth setting that rounds
out the history and places, people and events of the works published to date in
fine fashion.But at the same time, it
is not a necessary work.It is truly for
the Middle Earth enthusiast—the reader interested in learning more about the
land’s history, its lore, and perhaps, the depths of Tolkien’s
imagination.Covering an extremely broad
range of material—legends to historical epigraphs, maps to outtakes of
outtakes—it is thus a treasure for the interested reader, but not a
continuation of the Middle Earth story in consequential fashion.

The
following is the table of contents.(All
selections are by J.R.R. Tolkien unless otherwise noted.)

Introduction
by Christopher Tolkien

“Of Tuor
and His Coming to Gondolin”

“Narn I
Hîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin”

“A
Description of the Island of Númenor”

Númenórë
(map) by Christopher Tolkien

“Aldarion
and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife”

“The Line
of Elros: Kings of Númenor from the Founding of the City of Armenelos to the
Downfall”

“The
History of Galadriel and Celeborn and of Amroth King of Lórien”

“The
Disaster of the Gladden Fields”

“Cirion
and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan”

“The Quest
of Erebor”

“The Hunt
for the Ring”

“The
Battles of the Fords of Isen”

“The
Drúedain”

“The
Istari”

“The
Palantíri”

Index by
Christopher Tolkien

The West
of Middle-Earth at the End of the Third Age (map) by Christopher Tolkien